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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Life’s Game – by Crowning Glory

“No, nothing lik…” she started to defend
herself. “Am I so boring? Here I came all the way from Delhi to see you and you seemed lost in
others”, taunted Cyrus

Jennifer was smart enough to sense the
sarcasm and replied with a wink “I am not interested in tall, fair and nerdy
men you know”

She pulled away her hand shyly as he tried
to hold it. It’s in his eyes, but I want
to take it slowly, she thought.

Cyrus’s phone rang and he excused himself. Jennifer
decided not to tell him what she felt about Tara since he seemed inspired by
her personality. No. not yet

Cyrus came back and sadly announced that he
would have to leave. “So after all, you did not come to meet me” scoffed Jennifer
getting up from her chair. Cyrus looked displeased for having to leave such a
great company and promised that he would make it up to her.

They both came out of that coffee shop and
the sound of traffic surprised them. It was so calm and quiet inside that they
had forgotten they were in the middle of a busy street of Mumbai. Cyrus offered
her to drop her to her PG as he had a company car at his disposal. “I am
important to the company after all” he smiled and said.

Sitting beside him in the car she could
smell his rustic scent which was opposite to his looks. He so different than my ex. He has made me forget him. If only he could
see how happy I am with Cyrus right now. She subtly crossed her fingers
wishing this thing between her and Cyrus would be for the better.

They turned left in Malad close to her PG,
when she suddenly saw a market and asked the driver to stop. “I need a cleaning
kit for my camera and other stuff for my room and will get down here” explained
Jennifer. Cyrus looked disappointed but nevertheless opened the door for her.
“Sorry dear, I will not be able to join in your shopping” he said. “That’s
okay, you will go crazy seeing me bargain” chuckled Jennifer. She gave him a quick
hug before Cyrus sat back in the car.

Sigh.

She looked at the market flooded with
people and mentally prepared herself for the adventure she was getting into.
She was taught by her colleagues to deal with shopkeepers here and she was
becoming better at it.

She seemed amused by the Marathi talking
ladies, bargaining with shopkeepers with their small kids chewing the end of
their mother’s saree, waiting to get back home. She took help from the locals
to find the camera shop and moved towards it.

As she peered into a lane, her eyes
scanning the market, she froze. Her eyes widened like the goddess Kali and she
immediately turned her head away. As she walked away from there, her mind
started racing. Did he see me? How did he
come here? Is he following me? How does he know I am here?

She ran away as fast as she could and
ignored the nasty remarks directed towards her as she pushed people out of her
way. She saw a taxi and immediately got into it and asked the driver to speed.
Sweat trickled down her temples and she was afraid the driver would hear her
heart beat so loud

***

Noooooooooo…
please no- Jennifer cried frantically trying to free her arm from the hand
grabbing her tightly. He was so strong that she could feel his grip getting
tighter as if it would cut through the wrist

“Shut
her up or I will hit you with this hot rod”, she heard a loud manly voice which
surprisingly belonged to a woman. Jennifer was blindfolded and could only smell
sweat and fish. Jennifer knew she was in deep trouble. She could sense a lot of
people in a small room, and hear faint sobbing and an occasional sound of
someone getting slapped.

Her
voice was drowned by the strong grip over her mouth by another man and she
could no longer shout. Her efforts in biting the palm went in vain as she heard
the men laughing at her.

Minutes
passed and she became calmer. She then felt a needle working on her wrist. The
next minute fell down with a thud.

Regaining
her senses, she found herself in a dark room sans the blindfolds. She looked at
her wrist in the dim light coming out of the window and saw a tattoo of an
eagle catching a prey. “I am that pray”, she thought.

***

“Madam? Hello, madam? We have arrived”. Jennifer
was brought back with a start. She quickly handed the money to the driver and
ran into her apartment, locking the front door.

------------------------------------------------------

It was a Saturday evening and Tara was
making Italian pasta for Roohi which was an unusual scene in the Dutta house.

Shekhar was talking on the phone but his
eyes were on Tara. He was worried she might burn the pasta as she had hardly cooked
anything in the last few years. “God knows what has gotten into her today”, he
wondered.

“Who was it?” Tara
asked as she saw Shekhar putting down the phone

“Someone from work” replied Shekhar just to
get rid of her question. Why such sudden
interest?

“I got a few calls last week from my
PR informing me of an offer to write advertisement jingles. You know you can do
them” she said, wishing he would agree.

“What? You want a novelist to write jingles?”
She is hurting my pride-damn you, Shekhar
thought.

“I don’t have time
to fight with you on what you are and what you were. I just know that you sit
at home all day and don’t even try to do anything to change your life. I just
thought maybe I could get you back on your feet and make you see a better view
of life outside of this house.” snapped Tara, visibly irritated by his behavior
of not accepting his fault.

“Daddy!!!!” Shekhar ran to where the voice
was coming from to see Roohi on floor crying. Her doll was broken